Poll of Teachers Finds Two-Tiered System

Teachers who serve large numbers of poor and minority students work
in schools with more turnover, more unfilled teacher vacancies, lower
levels of parent involvement, and fewer textbooks and other teaching
materials than those who work in more affluent schools, according to a
three-state survey released last week.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s
decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
overturning school segregation, the National Commission on Teaching and
America’s Future, a Washington-based nonprofit organization,
commissioned the poll of 3,336 teachers in California, New York state,
and Wisconsin.

Conducted by the Peter Harris Research Group in New York City, the
Lou Harris poll points to a two-tiered education system, with students
and teachers in poor and minority schools learning and working in
broken-down, factory-era buildings with roaches and other pests and
inoperable restroom facilities.

"It is unacceptable to hold students accountable for meeting high
standards that their schools are not equipped to help them reach," the
report concludes.

In California, for example, 4 percent of teachers in low- poverty
schools said that their schools had high proportions of uncredentialed
teachers, meaning at least 20 percent.

But in high-poverty schools in the state, 48 percent of the teachers
surveyed said that was the case. The margin of error was plus or minus
3 percentage points.

The authors of the report conclude that the nation is relying too
heavily on teacher-recruitment strategies instead of changing "the
conditions that make these schools hard to staff in the first
place."

‘Unequal’ Conditions

The commission’s report also highlights a few positive
findings.

In more than 90 percent of the schools represented by teachers
surveyed in Wisconsin, student discipline was not viewed as a problem.
And in New York state, three-fourths of the teachers surveyed said that
they were satisfied with their textbooks and other instructional
materials.

"But it is important to recognize that these bright spots in the
surveys are heavily weighted in favor of the greater numbers of
teachers who work in low-risk, more advantaged schools," the report
says.

While the report doesn’t place blame for the inequities on any
one group, Kathleen Fulton, one of its authors and the director of the
Reinventing Schools for the 21st Century project at the commission,
said people should listen to what teachers have to say.

The authors recommend that education leaders and public officials
"acknowledge unequal and inadequate school conditions," and take action
to find solutions.

"The question of what to do is easy—the question of how is
hard," said Joseph S. Villani, the deputy executive director of the
Alexandria, Va.-based National School Boards Association. "Certainly,
nobody plans for their schools to have vermin. We are committed to
working on this. The question is, can the public and the political
machine work to make schools adequate?"

Leaders should also set standards for the kinds of resources schools
should provide, such as highly qualified personnel, up-to-date
technology, and enough books and other materials, the report says.

The authors recommend the adoption of school funding formulas that
are based on per-pupil needs instead of averages.

"School financing policies," they say, "should be based on an
analysis of what it will cost to raise the bar and close the gap in
specific areas of student achievement—bringing the teaching and
learning conditions in all schools up to a high standard."

Vol. 23, Issue 37, Page 10

Published in Print: May 19, 2004, as Poll of Teachers Finds Two-Tiered System

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